Los Coronados and Paravanes

Departing October 7, 2006 from San Diego, CA arriving October 7, 2006 to Los Coronados, Mexico and returned October 8, 2006 to San Diego. The Los Coronados Islands are just east of Tijuana and are part of Mexico. They are the closest islands to San Diego. It takes about 4 hours for Kosmos to get there from her slip. We were joined by several friends and Eric’s cousin for a total of 6 on board. The islands are a nature preserves and you are not allowed to set foot on them. A decent anchorage is at 32°23’58.13″N 117°14’21.86″W, but watch out for the aqua culture nets just to the south at 32°23’35.36″N 117°14’4.57″W. In fact a boat got caught in some lines near that area. We heard them calling for help and altered course and went to full throttle to help them. Continue reading

Mission Bay Photo Shoot

We made a couple trips to Mission Bay. It is about 13 nautical miles and an easy trip from San Diego Bay. Both times we anchored in Mariner’s Basin. This was a great chance to take some photos of Kosmos at anchor.

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You can anchor in Mariner’s Basin for 72 hours every 7 days. It is a very calm and protected anchorage. In fact, it is so flat that Continue reading

Ensenada to San Diego Pictures

There is little to report from our trip from Ensenada to San Diego. But we did take a few pictures we wanted to share.

As we headed north and the sun rose we looked back and saw the loading cranes and a cruise ship heading into the harbor. You can just barely make them out as the shadows in this picture.

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There are actually two cruise ships that arrive about 1 hour apart. Here is the other one we passed. We liked the subtle reflection of the pilot house in this picture. The visability was not too great, and we saw this cruise ship on radar long before we saw her by sight. Have we yet mentioned how awesome radar is? Continue reading

Adios Ensenada, Hello San Diego

Aug 26, 2006 from Ensenada to San Diego – We had easy 10 hour trip from Ensenada to San Diego. Two to four foot swells and only about 8 knots of wind off the port bow. We ran fast at about 1900 rpm at did about 7.2 knots most of the way. For longer passage we would probably go around 1750 rpm and 6.8 knots. We ran fast because we wanted to make it with plenty of time before customs closed, which we did. Once again we are pleased with the smooth, quiet, and leisurely pace of Kosmos.

We plan to use San Diego as our base of operations as we exercise Kosmos as much as possible before we head to the South Pacific in March/April/May of 2007. Between now and then is the time to go on a trial cruise and get approved as crew for a later, more exotic location.

First Night Run and Ensenada

Monday May 15th to Tuesday May 16th from Dana Point, USA to Ensenada, Mexico – We wrapped up at Dana Point with our 50 hour oil change on the engine, transmission, and generator with help from the commissioning staff. Pictured are Glenn (left) and Joe (right).

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Now it was time for an even longer voyage. How about an international trip taking place mostly at night? Continue reading